Parallels vs Vm Fusion

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Hi everyone. i am looking for the best product of the 2 for our needs. we will be converting from pc to mac. i have been surfing the net for comparisons but often discussions are from a technical aspect. this MBP is for my daughter who, as i, is technically-challenged. win xp pro sp2 will be installed. adobe's creative suite 3 will be on the mac side along with future purchase applications. ms office will be on the windows side. once the mac is loaded, she will need to get off the ground running; as little learning curve as possible due to severe time-constraints. we will be installing either parallels or fusion so which is easier to install is probably not going to be a determining factor. hubby and i can muddle thru the installation. the mbp will have maximum ram (4g).

the user will probably have several windows open, both on the windows and mac side, eg., word and cs3 and internet, simultaneously.

i am interested in everyone's thoughts on these 2 products...from an end user standpoint. which, in your opinion, will be more user-friendly for the layperson? why?

thanks soo much.
 

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The two are very similar in terms of features, stability and ease of use. I have yet to see a head to head comparison of both in their current forms.

I've been using Parallels since I switched and find it very easy to use and would recommend it. I also have quite a bit of experience with VMWare products, although I don't own Fusion. In all honesty, I don't think you can go wrong either way. Both are quite solid - if I were starting all over again and hadn't purchased Parallels already, I probably would have went with Fusion. It was still in beta (testing) stage at the time, but given my experience with VMWare in my professional life, I'd be far more apt to go with their product (Fusion) over Parallels, who is a relative new comer.
 

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Benchmarks, huh? Interesting that Parallels was rated so much "faster" than Fusion in XP. I've heard a lot of complaints of Parallels "snailing" the computer. Oh yeah, speaking of which . . . in my skim of the article, I didn't see any measurement of the effect of the virtual machine on the host system. That is, Parallels might open a PDF in XP faster than Fusion, but it could make OS X (the host) drag along.

...ms office will be on the windows side....
...which, in your opinion, will be more user-friendly for the layperson?...

margaret, (it'll look like I'm wandering here, but stay with me...)
Before I answer your question, I should say first that if all you are running on the Windows side is Office, I would recommend not using Office at all but downloading NeoOffice instead (no relation to me:)). NeoOffice is free software, just as user-friendly as Office, and is very cross-compatible with Office products. If you are adamant about using Office, you should also rather consider buying Office for Mac. If this is out of your budget range, it becomes very important to note which version of Office you are using. Here's why: I recently purchased a program called Crossover, by CodeWeavers. What it does is run certain supported Windows programs without any Windows installation at all. The list of compatible programs is growing. The performance of Office 2000 is excellent, Office 2002 very good, and even Office 2003 is workable. Updates are continually coming out, improving performance. Crossover is $60 at market, only $40 with an education discount. You can try 30 days before you buy. If none of all this preface is acceptable, (here's where I finally answer your question) I'd go with Fusion. It really runs Windows in OS X seamlessly. I would also search this Forum for more info on Fusion. There's a lot of good stuff written already (some by me). I hope this is helpful and that it all goes smoothly for you.
 
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Is there any particular reason you want to run a VM + Windows + Office for Windows instead of just running Office for Mac?
 
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thanks neo. i looked at crossover and liked the idea it didn't need windows (less outlay of $$). at this moment it'll be win office 2000; maybe 2003. my concern with crossover is that i don't know all the apps she will need/uses. she could easily load a win product and i would get a call asking why it doesn't work. i also don't know where her cell phone photos (moto q) and camera (nikon) xfers and hp usb-connected printer would fit in. i'm trying to get the big ticket items addressed and ordered online before next week's mac purchase. this purchase was not planned; pc just died and she has been computerless, so she wanted to make the split from the pc at this time.

this will be the first mac in 'our' shop. to date, i've never even put my fingers on a mac. she will be out of state with the mac and we will be her computer support team back home. a bit of a tough situation since we won't have a mac back home to figure things out when she runs into problems. imagine how fun the 2am phone calls will be. that's also probably why i'd like to stick with products we are most familiar with. not knowing the mac at this point nor this vm stuff, it will be difficult enough to determine if it is an operating system problem, user error, or an application issue.

one of the things i read about parallels that seemed like a plus for a novice is that you click on the file, and it automatically opens in the appropriate application operating system. it may seem like a small point, but this user doesn't care if it's win or mac, she just want to open up the file and get the work done. my concern is i'm sure there is a tradeoff...somewhere.

i've been cramming this pea brain of mine consistently for days and nites this last week regarding macs and applications, that i'm pretty much exhausted and brain dead. i'm just open to any help anyone can provide...

why would you go with fusion? better front end? does running seamlessly mean there will not be any problems? i will also search on the rest of the forums. i've pretty much lived in the switching forum.
 
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interesting.. i was just about to buy fusion until i read that. it seems parallels is a chunk faster using windows xp than parallels.

the only program i really need to use on the windows side is absolute poker, but i do run 8 tables at once and it can get messy, so any slowdown would blow.. i guess ill try parallels first.
 
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technologist - we don't have the $$ to re-buy the mac software and the learning curve/support. cs3 will be a new purchase and going forward, new software will be mac. i'm just looking to get thru the next 6 months
 

Neo


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thanks neo. i looked at crossover and liked the idea it didn't need windows (less outlay of $$). at this moment it'll be win office 2000; maybe 2003. my concern with crossover is that i don't know all the apps she will need/uses. she could easily load a win product and i would get a call asking why it doesn't work. i also don't know where her cell phone photos (moto q) and camera (nikon) xfers and hp usb-connected printer would fit in. i'm trying to get the big ticket items addressed and ordered online before next week's mac purchase. this purchase was not planned; pc just died and she has been computerless, so she wanted to make the split from the pc at this time.

this will be the first mac in 'our' shop. to date, i've never even put my fingers on a mac. she will be out of state with the mac and we will be her computer support team back home. a bit of a tough situation since we won't have a mac back home to figure things out when she runs into problems. imagine how fun the 2am phone calls will be. that's also probably why i'd like to stick with products we are most familiar with. not knowing the mac at this point nor this vm stuff, it will be difficult enough to determine if it is an operating system problem, user error, or an application issue.

one of the things i read about parallels that seemed like a plus for a novice is that you click on the file, and it automatically opens in the appropriate application operating system. it may seem like a small point, but this user doesn't care if it's win or mac, she just want to open up the file and get the work done. my concern is i'm sure there is a tradeoff...somewhere.

i've been cramming this pea brain of mine consistently for days and nites this last week regarding macs and applications, that i'm pretty much exhausted and brain dead. i'm just open to any help anyone can provide...

why would you go with fusion? better front end? does running seamlessly mean there will not be any problems? i will also search on the rest of the forums. i've pretty much lived in the switching forum.

For what it's worth, cell phone, Nikon, and HP printer should all be supported by the Mac with no problems. Really, the easiest thing to do would be to drop Office and use a different suite of software. Like I said, NeoOffice is free, iWork is only $70-80... Again there are a lot of software solutions out there for Mac, and the simplest, most user-friendly approach is going all-Mac. When you start adding virtual machines and the like is when it gets complicated. In the event your daughter runs into trouble with the Mac, there's this great forum (you're reading it now) that can give her advice and troubleshoot for her.
 
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for those accessories, assume just going to their site and finding something to download would take care of those things?

personally, i really liked what i read about iwork. (no mac to download any trials). however, i've read (here or elsewhere) that sometimes there's problems opening up a word doc and sometimes if the docs have graphs, etc., can pose a problem.

quite honestly, i'm pretty impressed with the now-a-days mac. i can't wait til i'm due to replace my pc. ...and i love this forum. i know i will be posting for help, so i hope folks will be patient with me.
 

Neo


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for those accessories, assume just going to their site and finding something to download would take care of those things?...

often you will find that you don't need any download at all to have things work with your Mac. it just works. (hey, I should trademark that) ;)
 
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Here's my two suggestions:

1) Don't bother running MS Office in Windows if that's all you'll be needing it for. Like Neo said, NeoOffice is a great free, open-source office program for Mac. It's based on OpenOffice.org, but it's a native Mac OS X application. It's very, very similar to MS Office 2003/4, in my opinion, so there wouldn't be too much learning curve. The differences--during my use, at least--are pretty small. It completely supports Word .doc files as well as the new .docx files of the new MS Office 2007/8.

2) If you still need to run Windows whether for Office, if you don't take my suggestion, or for any other programs you might need, I suggest VMWare Fusion. I use it to run some statistics software that isn't developed for Mac anymore, and I've never had any trouble with it. It's very stable and runs fast right beside OS X. Parallels has been out longer for Mac, but VMWare has been in the virtual machine business for years and years (forever, basically) and has tons of support. I haven't needed to use them, but if running into problems is a worry, I hear they have good forums and other resources for such things. Its Unity feature is great when you want to integrate your Windows programs into OS X, and I love that I can suspend my virtual machine and come back right where I left off when I open the program again in just a few seconds. So if you still need Windows, I suggest Fusion.
 
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When was that benchmark done? They aren't using the latest software releases.
We tested VMware Fusion 1.0 (51348) and Parallels 3.0 (5160), and opted not to upgrade mid-way through the test suite.
At the time of the tests, this was Mac OS X 10.4.10 and included the most up-to-date versions of Apple patches as prescribed through "Software Update" in Mac OS X.

VMware Fusion is at 1.1 now.
http://www.vmware.com/support/fusion/doc/releasenotes_fusion.html#new11

I'd be interested to know if the current software would change the benchmarks at all.
 
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Crossover is definately not for newbies, not to mention it doesn't have the greatest compatibility.

Parallels is easier to get up and running and the 3.0 has a tiny footprint on the OS X system. If I launch XP, I.E. and MS Money for example, it uses just a sniff over 256MB, and about 8% CPU idle.

If you're only going to use Windows for Office, those benchmarks are meaningless. Office XP runs quicker on my 2.0ghz CD Macbook than my Dell 3.0ghz Pentium D at work. Honestly, unless you're compiling 200 GB Star Schema Databases, either VM or Parallels will be quick enough. If you fancy playing games, then VM is slightly better, but BootCamp is best.

I would really look into splashing $150 for Office 2008 though, rather than $80 for Parallels, if you're only reason for running Windows is Office. It'll save loads of HDD space and a little hassle.
 
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Using native software (whether NeoOffice, for free, or iWork, for $71, or Office) will be much less confusing than a VM.

For an inexperienced user, having to deal with two separate operating systems on the same computer would be a horrendous ordeal.
 
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Using native software (whether NeoOffice, for free, or iWork, for $71, or Office) will be much less confusing than a VM.

For an inexperienced user, having to deal with two separate operating systems on the same computer would be a horrendous ordeal.
Agreed. Especially if a user intends on "converting from pc (Windows) to mac (Mac OS)" with "as little learning curve as possible".

Concentrating on one OS is the best way to "get off the ground running".
 

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